Good news! I was able to finish the Cellcom Green Bay Half Marathon! For two reasons; because I was able to do it, and two; because I finished before they stopped it.
I am not sure if I was nervous at the start or not. I was more excited than nervous, and just glad that I was there and ready to go. I haven't been running when it was that hot, but I was fully hydrated and prepared to take it slow if need be. Besides, I figured it couldn't get too hot before 9 am. Um, yeah, it got hot.
I started off pretty quick with my first mile around seven minutes. I knew I was running faster, but was ok with it because I wasn't going to tamp down my adrenaline and the atmosphere was really fun. My first five miles were around 41 minutes. And then I got tired. My normal run length is about 4 miles, so I was kind of expecting to slow down around mile 5.
Miles 5, 6, 7, and 8 were not that awesome. I was running near a pace group of about 8:12 and then 8:23 and then.... I slowed down. People were starting to get pretty warm... walking... and some even stopping. I knew I didn't want to have to walk, so I figured I would rather slow down than walk. There was a lot of water stations and people along the route had their sprinklers out, which was nice. Although every time I ran through a sprinkler I lost my breath. I don't remember sprinklers being so cold when I was 8!
Around mile 9, I started to feel good again. I'm not sure why... maybe because the end was only 4 miles away. That, and I just started to pretend everyone was cheering for me :) At mile 11 I started my "End of Race" playlist and felt like I was going to kick I must say though, when the half marathon runners split from the marathon runners at mile 12, I was not hoping to go another 13 miles. I honestly have no desire to run a marathon. My attention span is too short for training and for the actual run.
The last mile I felt like I was really kicking it in, but according to my time, I probably wasn't. We had to run behind porta-potties, which kind of made me gag on the last home stretch. And then people started sprinting and I thought, "Oh no you didn't" and then started sprinting too. Yay! I finished with 1:52:05 with an average of 8:33 miles. It was ahead of my unannounced goal, which was 1:54, so I was pretty pleased. I was able to recover pretty quickly too, enough to be able to enjoy a beer and brat shortly after.
In all, I would run the Cellcom Green Bay Half Marathon again. I thought it was a fast and flat route and well-organized. I may feel differently if I was stopped at like mile 16 during my marathon, and told I can't finish, but decisions have to be made and it was really hot. Hopefully next year it will be a nice 60 degrees and not 87 degrees like on Sunday!
